strictlysupreme Chapter 306 The Cycle of Fate
Chapter 306 The Cycle of Fate
Chapter 306 The Cycle of Fate
As Cyril stared at the "Red Priest" card on the table in front of Klein and muttered to himself, "Justice"...
Audrey noticed Derrick's unusual expression and quickly asked, "Mr. Sun, you seem troubled?"
"What went wrong with the expedition to explore that half-collapsed temple?"
Derrick took a deep breath, calmed himself, and quickly described the events from his newly recovered memories: "Led by the chief, we have arrived at and explored the half-collapsed temple. There were no casualties during the process, but..."
He pursed his lips, took several deep breaths, and then continued, "But we've already repeated the same thing five times, and we're about to begin the sixth exploration."
"I had no prior knowledge of what was happening before Mr. Fool's reminder, nor did I have any memory of any previous exploration."
"The previous five explorations all had the same outcome, but each time there were some differences in the details."
"The first time, outside that half-collapsed temple, we encountered the sudden event where all the animal skin lanterns went out, but we didn't encounter it again on subsequent occasions."
"The second time, some of us couldn't control ourselves and almost swallowed those beautiful yet dangerous mushrooms growing on the corners of the wall," but were stopped in time by the Chief.
"The third time, the strange little boy Jack told us more. The fourth time, the little boy changed without warning. The fifth time, when we were exploring the underground area of the temple, the temple completely collapsed, blocking the exit of the underground area."
"Every time, the Chief kills the little boy named Jack, and then everything goes back to when we're resting outside the city ruins, preparing to explore, and everything starts anew."
"During this period of time, my exploration team in Silver City and I have been living this repetitive life."
As he spoke, he stood up, turned to the side, and solemnly bowed to the blurry figure shrouded in gray mist at the head of the mottled long table.
...No need to be so formal. Mr. Fool himself only just learned about this from you.
This must be because the strange power that I pulled into this space above the gray fog could no longer affect me, which is why Mr. "Sun" suddenly regained his memories.
As his thoughts continued to wander, "The Fool" Klein maintained his relaxed demeanor, simply nodding slightly in response.
...However, constantly repeating the same old life sounds somewhat familiar.
As his thoughts wandered, guided by his spiritual intuition, he quickly recalled the time when Cyril was on Banshee Island, when he exhausted the power of the "Mercury Serpent's" corpse in order to provide sufficient shelter.
...A similar time-reversal event also occurred at that time.
Based on my divination results at the time, it meant that fate had been reset and overwritten.
Is Mr. "Sun" experiencing something similar now?
But the Silver City exploration team has already repeated the process five times, and will most likely continue to do so, which is something an abandoned corpse could not accomplish.
Could it be that a living "mercury serpent" is near that half-collapsed temple, or has been watching over it through some connection and exerting influence?
As his thoughts raced, he heard "The Sun," Derrick, ask with a mixture of urgency and earnestness: "Do you know the root of the problem? How should it be solved?"
Seeing everyone remain silent, he manipulated the "world" to look at Cyril and tentatively asked, "This sounds somewhat like the power of the Mercury Serpent."
Cyril nodded in agreement: "It does indeed resemble the cycle of fate created by the Mercury Serpent."
Before he could finish speaking, everyone turned to look at him.
"The Mercury Serpent, a Cycle of Fate?"
Derrick repeated "The Sun" to himself, but couldn't find any related memories in his mind.
He paused, looked at Sirion, and asked earnestly:
'
What are "Mr. Fate," "The Mercury Serpent," and "The Cycle of Fate"? And how can they be broken?
Others listened with curiosity.
Cyril pondered for a moment before replying, "The 'Mercury Serpent' is Sequence 1 of the 'Fate' pathway."
"The Cycle of Heart Fate" is an ability possessed by the "Mercury Serpent," capable of plunging a person, object, or region into a peculiar state.
Time within the "cycle of fate" will maintain a certain degree of flow, yet remain fixed within a certain range, repeating itself in a balanced and continuous manner—that is, relatively static.
"As for ways to break this cycle, I can think of two: one is to insert a strong external force to break the cycle directly, or to remove a non-critical part of the cycle directly."
"Secondly, we need to find the node that maintains the cycle. This must exist, and you have already come into contact with it, but I don't know exactly what it is."
"I do know a Mercury Serpent," but he most likely won't help, nor can he help you in your place of divine abandonment.
"Justice" Audrey looked at Cyril with surprise and astonishment:
Could it be that Mr. "Fate" uses the "Wheel of Fortune" card as his pseudonym for this reason?
Gathering her scattered thoughts, she asked a question on behalf of "The Sun" Derrick: "Could we ask the 'Mercury Serpent' how to break the cycle of fate? Or perhaps trade special charms from Him?"
Cyril considered Will Onsetin's personality for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't think He'll pay any attention to me."
After a two-second silence, "The World" spoke again in a hoarse voice: "I think there's another issue that needs our attention, rather than breaking the cycle of fate."
Derrick immediately asked, "What's the problem?"
Alger, the "Hanged Man," continued, "The 'world' probably refers to the 'mercury serpent' that has trapped you in this cycle. Where is it?"
"this..."
Seeing that everyone seemed to be stuck on some strange bottleneck, Cyril spoke up to remind them: "The True Creator has an angel of fate named Urolius under his command."
"Furthermore, the cycle of fate encountered by the Silver City exploration team" should only be a remnant of the power left behind by the "Angel of Fate" in the temple.
"If He Himself were in that vicinity, it's impossible for Him to appear so many times without showing up."
"Since He has not shown himself, it means that either He was never there in the first place, or He observed for a while, found it uninteresting, and then left."
Alger: "Very likely."
After speaking, he looked at Audrey, the "Justice," sitting opposite him, and said carefully, "The 'Sun's' description of Jack and his father reminded me of something."
"I should have mentioned to you before, I once hunted down a listener of the Aurora Society at sea," whose goal was to find the sanctuary of the "true Creator."
The child of "that listener" is very close in age to the Jack described by "the sun."
"The Sun," Derrick, suddenly widened his eyes and looked at "The Hanged Man" beside him, his previously suppressed emotions from being trapped in the loop turning into joy.
"Mr. Hanged Man, you mean that Jack came from your world to the vicinity of Silver City?"
Alger, the "Hanged Man," glanced at Cyril, who showed little reaction to the matter, before saying, "It's just a possibility."
"You could try to mention the Sunia Sea, the Kingdom of Rune, and the port city to that little boy Jack."
Derrick nodded very seriously: "I understand!"
He then looked at the head of the table, "The Fool" Klein, and asked him to bring the image in his mind to life.
Soon, images from Derrick's mind began to surface.
This is a general outline of the Silver City exploration team's journey through the continuous cycle of exploration, and some key points that he considers important are presented to everyone:
Collapsed city walls, ruins of destroyed buildings in white and blue; and a temple of the "True Creator" supported by stone pillars, some intact and some broken, with a rough style but not lacking in detail.
Inside the temple, in the dark corners, grow those beautiful yet dangerous "mushrooms".
There is also an underground area with murals depicting the apocalypse and the "True Creator" resisting the six evil gods and protecting the surviving humans.
And the biggest anomaly was the eerie little boy, Jack, with his pale yellow hair...
Look at the eerie and gloomy scene manifested by "The Fool" Klein.
Cyril couldn't help but lean forward slightly. If he could go to the Forsaken Lands, he felt that digesting the "Recorder's" potion would be no worse than at sea, and might even be better.
After playing the role for a while, he discovered some patterns:
The more unique and unfamiliar a folk custom or landscape is to the general public, the better it will be to document.
Furthermore, the role of "record officer" is not simply about recording; it also includes the meaning of dissemination. The best record is one that everyone remembers.
He turned his head to look at "The Sun" Derrick beside him, opened his mouth, and then quickly closed it again.
He wanted to ask Derrick if he could depict Silver City's experiences exploring the Forsaken Lands in such a visual way, so that he could turn the content into a comic and publish it on the northern and southern continents and at sea.
According to the rules of role-playing he recently summarized, this can effectively help him digest the "Recorder" potion.
However, this request is somewhat out of place now, so we have to give it up for the time being.
As he drifted off into thought, the other people reacted in various ways.
Klein was filled with sighs and exclamations, while Audrey developed an unusually strong interest in this mysterious, unknown, and terrifying place, hoping to have the opportunity to embark on a real adventure.
Fors was equally interested in these scenes, but she was thinking about how to incorporate them into her novel.
Alger, the "Hanged Man," is observing every detail in the scene with unusual seriousness, both to gather information and to help Derrick, the "Sun," find the node in the "cycle of fate."
He quickly shared his key points with "The Sun" Derrick and asked him to recreate those images.
Among them are scenes of the "true creator" fighting against six evil gods.
The cross behind the "True Creator" was eroded by the surrounding seawater-like blackness, to the point that some of the originally white parts had turned pitch black, but it still stubbornly supported a hazy world, and countless humans knelt down to pray to Him.
The sinister figures of the six evil gods lurked in the surrounding darkness, their eyes filled with greed and malice as they looked at the "True Creator".
Some of them had indistinct faces, as if wearing a mask without features; some carried rotten green books and spears, their chests and vests upside down; some held a rotting baby in their arms; and others had octopus heads, wore feathered cloaks, and walked on black waves...
Alger pointed to the six eerie figures and asked, "Which evil gods are these?"
Derrick shook his head honestly: "I didn't know. I thought you two would know each other."
"Justice" Audrey and "Magician" Fors observed carefully several times, but still couldn't find a suitable candidate.
The "world" is because Klein has been thinking deeply and has remained silent ever since Derrick began showing the scene of the Forsaken Land.
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